Meaning & use
iatrogenic
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a nounmedical
Describing an illness, injury or problem that is caused by medical treatment or by a doctor or hospital, without anyone meaning it to happen.
Grammar: Used before a noun: an iatrogenic infection; it is not normally used about people.
Patterns
- iatrogenic illness
- iatrogenic injury
The patient developed an iatrogenic infection after the operation.
Doctors try to reduce iatrogenic harm by checking medication doses twice.
An iatrogenic reaction to the new drug sent her back to the hospital.
Common combinations
- iatrogenic injury
- The hospital reviewed every iatrogenic injury last year.
- iatrogenic infection
- A contaminated tool caused an iatrogenic infection.
- iatrogenic harm
- Better training can reduce iatrogenic harm.
- iatrogenic effect
- One iatrogenic effect of the drug was a drop in blood pressure.
- iatrogenic illness
- The report listed iatrogenic illness among the main causes of hospital stays.
Synonyms and how they differ
- treatment-induced
- Treatment-induced is plainer and easier for non-specialists, while iatrogenic is the standard medical term.
- hospital-acquired
- Hospital-acquired describes infections picked up in a hospital, whereas iatrogenic describes harm caused by the treatment itself, wherever it takes place.
- medically caused
- Medically caused is an everyday way to say the same thing in plain language.
Word family
- iatrogenesis noun
- the process of illness being caused by medical care
- iatrogenically adverb
- in a way caused by medical treatment
- iatrogenicity noun
- the tendency of a treatment to cause harm
Commonly confused: iatrogenic or idiopathic? iatrogenic or nosocomial?
iatrogenic vs idiopathic
Idiopathic describes a disease with no known cause, while iatrogenic describes harm caused by treatment.
iatrogenic vs nosocomial
Nosocomial refers to infections caught in a hospital, while iatrogenic describes harm caused by treatment, whether in a hospital or not.
Practice
A patient develops a drug side effect because of a prescribing error. The condition is best described as ___.
Choose one answer.
Iatrogenic describes harm caused by medical care, such as a prescribing error. Idiopathic means no known cause, and congenital and hereditary describe conditions present from birth or inherited.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “iatrogenic”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.